The present invention relates to free-standing objects having laboratory grown diamond surfaces and methods for fabricating such objects. More particularly, the present invention is directed to such objects and methods wherein the outer surface of the object includes a plurality of intersecting facets having a diamond layer.
Diamond is one of the most technologically and scientifically valuable materials found in nature due to its combination of high resistance to thermal shock, extreme hardness, excellent infrared transparency, and excellent semiconductor properties.
Diamond has the highest known isotropic thermal conductivity and a relatively low expansion coefficient thus providing it with desirable resistance to thermal shock. Because of these properties, diamond has found increasing use as a thermal management material in electronic packaging of devices such as high power laser diodes, multichip modules, and other microelectronic devices.
Diamond is also the hardest known material and has desirable resistance to abrasion. Thus diamond components and coatings have found increasing use as wear resistance elements in various mechanical devices and in cutting and grinding tools. Diamond is also highly resistant to corrosion.
Diamond is also a good electrical insulator, but can be synthesized to be electrically conducting by the addition of certain elements such as boron to the growth atmosphere. Diamond is also used in many semiconductor devices including high-power transistors, resistors, capacitors, FET's, and integrated circuits.
The scarcity and high cost of natural diamond has prohibited its widespread commercial use. However, the development of various methods for synthesizing diamond has made the widespread commercial use of diamond possible. The most commercially promising method for synthesizing diamond includes the growth of diamond by chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
Diamond synthesis by CVD has become a well established art. It is known that diamond coatings on various objects may be synthesized, as well as free-standing objects. Typically, the free-standing objects have been fabricated by deposition of diamond on planar substrates or substrates having relatively simple cavities formed therein. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,278 discloses forming solid generally pyramidal or conical diamond microchip emitters by plasma enhanced CVD by growing diamond to fill cavities formed in the silicon substrate. However, there remains a need for methods of making free-standing, internally-supported, three-dimensional objects having an outer surface comprising a plurality of intersecting facets (planar or non-planar), wherein at least a sub-set of the intersecting facets have a diamond layer.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to obviate many of the deficiencies in the prior art and to provide novel methods of making free-standing structures having diamond surfaces.
It is another object of the present invention to provide novel methods of making structures using diamond CVD.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide novel structures formed by diamond CVD.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide novel methods of making free-standing structures having an exposed diamond surface.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide novel methods of making internally-supported structures having an exposed diamond surface.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.